E-news August 2013

A great reward for all of our efforts these past months. Following our 3rd place podium finish in the Hyeres World Cup; we have since continued with our preparation program. This has included our on-water training, competitions and also our daily work and university studies. It has been a very intense period this past year; however with this performance of 3rd in the World; we hope we will be able to find more financial support to allow us to sail more professionally- and to be on a more equal level with the other big sailing nations in the World.

OUR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, day-by-day

We started our even preparation with a 4day training camp in Scheveningen with Sebbe Godefroid. We were able to work individually on numerous technical details as well as test and tune our new race sails for the Worlds. We were extremely fortunate with great sailing conditions of 12-23knots of wind, and challenging tidal currents and exciting waves. As the event came closer though and high pressure system slowly took over Europe, and although we were met with rising temperatures - the wind decreased.. We were able to continue our training in smaller races with the Australian, New Zealand and Argentinian teams however it was almost all light winds of 3-7 knots and also with really big influence from the tide.

Our weather predictions for the worlds forecasted a difficult week with light and shifty winds - for once the forecast was correct as it was exactly what happened!

The event included some extremely long days of waiting both onshore and on the water, sometimes until 9pm! In the split-fleet qualification series, the light winds resulted in us completing our 5 qualification races in one day after we were not able to complete any racing on the first two scheduled days. A healthy 10-12 knots of wind brought a smile to all of the sailors faces on this day; and we were able to sail exceptionally well to sail fast and be quite consistent; positing a 3, 5, 2, 1, 20; which placed us in 3rd position to enter the final series.

Photo (c) ThomTouw

The Finals were again played out in testing conditions with extremely variable winds of 4-7 knots, and often more than 40metres/minute of current! (1.5knots!) The racing really required maximum concentration and 'nerves of steel' to be confident to carry out your tactical options! Over the scheduled days only 3 further races could be completed; meaning that none of these race scores could be discarded. Our 2nd placing in the final race however secured us 3rd position overall entering the Medal Race. The final day was tense as with only a few points separating us from the boats behind in this double-points medal race, and with light tricky winds again forecasted it was going to be extremely tight racing..

After a storm front came through, it looked it may be possible to race! However as the clouds cleared so did the wind; but it was not until the final seconds of the scheduled time slot that the race committee declared not further racing.. The results stay the same and we are confirmed WINNERS OF THE BRONZE MEDAL!!!

photo (c) Laurens Morel

Next event

PARTNeRS

A big thanks to all our partners who are already following us. To be able to keep figthing with the big nations in the sailing world, we are still looking for funding. Come and jump into our Dream Team!Thanks for your support and see you soon.